


Despite the Falling Snow

by Alexandria (heartfullofelves)



Category: War and Peace (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 21:46:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8639422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartfullofelves/pseuds/Alexandria
Summary: A tragic turn of events has Sonya and Marya coming together.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lucyemers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucyemers/gifts).



Tears fall down Sonya’s cheeks as she signs the letter releasing Nikolai from their engagement. She dabs at her face with a handkerchief embroidered many years ago by Countess Rostova herself, and sniffs; and that is the end of her emotional outburst. She knows the family relies on Nikolai marrying well, and she has been dependent on them for so long she cannot in good conscience prevent their survival. She loves Nikolai, always will, but she will not get in the way of his happiness and that of his family. He’ll be happier with Princess Bolkonskaya, whose fortune will support his relatives. So Sonya is letting him go.

She is in the middle of addressing the letter when she hears an awful banshee cry from the living room. The wail belongs to Countess Rostova. Sonya freezes, and then she hears another scream, which she recognises as Natasha’s. She drops her pen and runs to join her relatives.

She soon wishes she hadn’t.

Count Rostov, pale and shaking with a letter in his hand, informs her that Nikolai has been killed in action. All their worrying about Petya, the youngest son facing his first battle, and they were not prepared for Nikolai, a seasoned hussar, to fall.

Sonya cannot bear the cries and screams and denials. Wrapping a shawl around herself, she goes outside, where a light snow falls, and leans against the house exterior, clutching the shawl under her chin. She’d thought she’d finished crying for the day. She was wrong.

Once more, tears wet her cheeks, only now she’s sobbing, and she falls to the ground, sitting with her back to the house and her knees cradled to her chest, not at all like a mature, elegant young woman. Countess Rostova would be most disappointed in her. But why should she care?

* * *

Princess Marya frowns as Mademoiselle Bourienne enters the room. Noting her companion’s expression, Marya’s heart sinks. “What is it?” she murmurs.

“A letter. It is not good news,” says Mademoiselle Bourienne, handing over a sheet of writing paper.

Marya does not stop to wonder why someone else has already seen a letter addressed to her, but takes it and begins to read. She manages three sentences before she does not want to read any more. She folds the paper, crosses herself, and murmurs a quick prayer before the message sinks in and she is trembling.

Mademoiselle Bourienne puts her hand on Marya’s shoulder and kisses her cheek. Then she turns to leave her alone. Marya thanks her.

Marya spends the rest of the evening alternating between crying and praying for Nikolai’s soul. He was one of few men she has cared for in her life, and she had begun to believe there might be a future for them. She could not have known.

* * *

Marya goes to the funeral. She is placed between Natasha and Sonya Rostova, and thinks how odd it is that she should be with them now when the Rostovs could have been her family twice over. She does not cry during the ceremony, and when she glances to her right she sees that Sonya is not weeping either, but rather looks as if she is suffocating. Marya touches Sonya’s hand and Sonya meets her eye. Understanding passes between them.

At the end of the ceremony, they go outside together. It is a strange situation to be in: it is strange for Marya to be talking to Nikolai’s fiancée, and strange for Sonya to be talking to Nikolai’s new woman. Despite this strangeness, they speak to each other without making it awkward.

Sonya is relieved to discover that the woman who would have taken her place as Nikolai’s fiancée is intelligent and complex (she could not have coped if Marya had been just another Julie Karagina) and warms to the princess in little time. This surprises her, but in a good way: this is not the time to be making an enemy out of her former rival, if Marya can even be called that; this is the time to be making a new acquaintance. Sonya thinks friendship with Marya might just be possible.

Marya, on the other hand, smiles at the knowledge that Nikolai’s betrothed is selfless and smart. When Sonya tells her she had written to Nikolai to break their engagement just moments before she received news of his death, Marya weeps. She shivers, too, but is not conscious of the sudden cold. Seeing this, Sonya removes her shawl and wraps it around Marya’s shoulders.

Marya glances up. “Thank you,” she says in wonder. “But why did you give me your shawl?”

Sonya gives a vague smile. “It’s snowing,” she says.

Marya looks at the sky, and so it is. But despite the falling snow, and despite the winter, she is beginning to thaw.

 


End file.
